Greetings All,

I can add that during the summer months, there are equal numbers of Stellers and Scrubs at the Hundred Acre Woods (NE Lakewood, Pierce County) and now the Stellers are all gone. We had the same sort of disappearance last fall. The Scrubs continue all year round.

-Rolan

Ruth and/or Patrick Sullivan <godwit at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
Hello Dennis and Tweeters,and others

To add to your inquiry regarding jay movements during fall migration of both Steller's and Western Scrub Jays and to mention that we have personal experienced this phenomena for 5 straight years now. Of course most of our noteworthy sightings have been confined to coastal areas consisting primarily of Steller's Jays in varying numbers of steady streams of birds varying from 20 to nearly 300 birds. Our largest concentration of Steller's Jays occurred during an early morning visit to Damon Point on the 17th of September,2001. As we walked out past the Damon Point"pond" we noticed a steady stream of Steller's Jays flying overhead from the north over North Bay. The birds all landed in Scot's Broom thickets,as well as a few scattered evergreen trees along the north side of Damon Point and wandered southward,as continued birds moved in from the north. We counted 20-50 birds with a 1 minute duration,then within 5 minutes counted almost 300 birds,as they all continued south over th!
e land
towards Catala Spit. Within 15 minutes all the birds had moved on to the south over Grays Harbor and we could see them fairly high over the water,as the 1st groups had made landfall. It was an experience we won't forget and that might not be duplicated again. Eventually the birds flew upwards and out over Grays Harbor continuing south towards Westport.We have encountered he densest numbers nearest points or peninsula tips such as at Ocean Shores,Leadbetter Point and Tokeland to name a few of our most familiar locations and most of these sightings have taken place during early September into October,then tapering off considerably by mid October. Only in the last year have we personally encountered increasing numbers of migrating Western Scrub Jays away from their normal or local haunts,but these numbers are usually of single birds with as many as 5 birds at a single location. We figure as Western Scrub Jays continue to wander and expand from southern populations more and mo!
re
sightings will occur.We have unusually encountered the migrant Western Scrub Jays alone,but occasionally occur with Steller's Jays. We aren't aware of how widespread this migration is between both species along the immediate Washington and Oregon coast,but we do also encounter migrant flocks of Steller's Jays further inland such as within the Puget Sound region. We also aren't aware of any eastern Washington sightings of migrant Steller's Jays,but perhaps this does not occur,especially in areas such as the Columbia Basin,where both species are exceedingly rare. It is possible this migration could occur along the east slope of the Cascades,but have never personally encountered this. We personally have not observed the ages of the birds migrating,but we figure they could likely be of adult and young birds,as they disperse from breeding locations. We also notice that most of the migrant jays are unvocal at least in flight,but occasionally hear them once they are landed in vege!
tation.
We have not experienced movements of Steller's Jays during spring migration. We wonder if fall migration is strictly confined to Steller's and Western Scrub Jays or does it also occur within other Corvidae species that may tend to wander? We know that widespread numbers of Blue Jays were observed last fall in Idaho and areas of eastern Washington and Oregon,but this appeared to be a much far different situation than what is occurring with Steller's Jays. It seemed that the Blue Jays set up territories and overwintered in multiple numbers at selected sites rather than seemingly migrate.

We don't recall too terribly many reports from other birds experiencing migrant Steller's Jays on Tweeters,but would enjoy hearing other personal experiences,especially since it is a birding topic. We'd also enjoy hearing how widespread the fall migration of Steller's Jay is,especially areas south and north of Washington,as well as inland areas.


Sincerely,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan





----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis Paulson" <dennispaulson at comcast.net>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2005 6:41 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] jay migration



> Hello, tweets.
>
> I have just been reading about the virtual epidemic of Western
> Scrub-Jay sightings this weekend. I hadn't reported that the Seattle
> Audubon Master Birders field trip last weekend saw a scrub-jay heading
> south along the beach with small numbers of Steller's Jays at the
> public restroom at the north end of Ocean Shores (as you drive out to
> the beach) on Saturday, Oct 1. I have wondered at the southbound
> movements of Steller's Jays in coastal areas of WA for many years, and
> this is the first year it has become obvious to me that scrub-jays are
> doing the same thing. Both of these species are considered
> nonmigratory! It would certainly be nice to know (1) over how much of
> the West (or Pacific coast) do these movements happen, (2) how far
> these movements take the birds, (3) if there is a reverse movement in
> spring (I saw this once, many years ago, at Leadbetter Point), and (4)
> if both adults and young participate in it. All of these questions,
> except possibly (3), seem difficult to answer without marked birds.
>
> Dennis
> -----
> Dennis Paulson
> 1724 NE 98 St.
> Seattle, WA 98115
> 206-528-1382
>
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Rolan Nelson
Fircrest, WA
rnbuffle at yahoo.com

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